Employee hygiene washdown and/or sanitizing of the facility will

More Cabbage and Leafy Greens
Good employee hygiene is very important.
Employee training, health screening, and
constant monitoring of packinghouse sanita-
reduce the potential for microbial growth. The
cooling system should be monitored and
cleaned daily or as necessary, depending on
Good Agricultural Practices
the type of system.
tion practices (hand washing, personal
hygiene) are important in reducing contami- for the
P H
Temperature control

roduction and andling

nation by employees.
Southeastern
Maintaining proper holdingroom temperature Regional Program
Packinghouse equipment could promote product quality and reduce

Packinghouse equipment should always be
maintained in clean condition. The remnants
of product left on belts, tables, lines, and
conveyors could provide a source for micro-
bial growth; therefore, cleaning by scrubbing
to remove particles should be part of the
cleaning procedure.
Sanitizing by spot-spraying with a chlorine
solution should be carried out, especially on
belt conveyors and equipment. Knives, saws,
blades, boots, gloves, smocks, and aprons
should be cleaned or replaced as needed.
Pest control
A pest control program should be in place to
reduce, as much as possible, the risk of
contamination by rodents or other animals.
Facility sanitation
Packinghouse facilities have the potential for
developing microbial growth on walls, tunnels,
ceilings, floors, doors, and drains. Scheduled
of Cabbage and
microbial growth. Temperature should be
monitored in order to ensure established
product temperature parameters.
Shipping
Leafy Greens
Vehicles
Trucks must be inspected for sanitary
condition and optimum transit temperature Sponsored by:
before being loaded with produce. Check for
visible cleanliness, odors, dirt, and/or other USDA-CSREES
debris prior to loading. Any truck showing National Integrated Food Safety Initiative
these conditions should be rejected. Check Project Number 00-51110-9722
for pest infestation, physical condition and
Southern Regional Fresh Produce Food Safety Training Program
the presence of a properly aligned air chute
before loading. Make sure a Ryan tempera- Edited by:
ture recorder is present to monitor cold Dennis J. Osborne, Extension Associate, Horticultural Science Department
temperature during transit. Never load
Douglas C. Sanders, Extension Horticulture Specialist, Horticultural Science Department
produce into a warm truck.
Donn R. Ward, Associate Department Head, Food Science
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

Published by
NORTH CAROLINA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SER
NORTH VICE
SERVICE
Distributed in furtherance of the Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914. Employment and program opportunities are
offered to all people regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. North Carolina State University, North
Carolina A&T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating.
09/02—JL/VG G03 43003
 William C. Hurst and Darbie Granberry,
More Cabbage and Leafy Greens
Food Science and
Horticultural Science Departments,
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
Introduction
Many leafy greens (including cabbage,
collards, kale, mustard, and turnips) are cut
by hand and packed directly in the field for
the fresh market. Cabbage also may be cut by
hand, loaded into a bulk container, such as a
field wagon, and hauled to a packing shed for
trimming, grading and packaging.
Field sanitation practices are very impor-
tant to reduce the spread of disease among
plants and to prevent the possibility of
contamination by microorganisms that are
pathogenic (cause illness) to humans.
Preharvest
Raw product safety
The principal food safety hazard from leafy
greens is microbial contamination. Ensuring
the safety of raw leafy greens begins with
preventing hazards in the field. The best
guarantee of a safe raw product is a proactive
food safety program that has been designed
and implemented to identify and prevent
hazards during production and postharvest
handling. Growers/shippers should familiarize
themselves with safe production practices so
they might be viewed as qualified suppliers
among potential buyers.
Land-use history
Grazing animals on or near crop land can
introduce bacteria harmful to humans into the
soil. Growers should ensure that land has not
been used for animal husbandry and that it is
not close to animal feedlots or water runoff
from grazing lands. Past improper use of
pesticides can result in hazardous residues
on raw product. If there is any doubt about
the suitability of the soil, residual levels of
pesticides and heavy metals should be
determined before planting.
Fertilizer use
Incompletely composted organic fertilizers
may contain bacteria harmful to humans from
animal or human feces. If organic fertilizers
are used, they must be properly and com-
pletely composted so pathogens are not
present. Inorganic fertilizers originate from
nontoxic, synthetic chemicals, so the presence
of pathogens is not an issue. Composted
sewage sludge should not be used, as it may
contain pathogens as well as heavy metal
contamination.
Irrigation
Natural surface water (e.g., canal, lake, pond)
provides enough organic matter to support the
growth of bacterial pathogens. It may be used
with caution for irrigation but should be tested
for the presence of the bacterium Escherichia
coli (E. coli), which is an indicator of fecal
contamination. Groundwater is less likely to
harbor human pathogens but should be
analyzed for heavy metal and pesticide
contamination.
Overhead irrigation is more likely to spread
contamination to above-ground plant parts
than is root-zone irrigation. Growers should
document how water is stored, if animals are
confined nearby, and if water is potable (safe
to drink).
Pesticide usage
Growers must be able to answer the following
questions: Do you oversee your pesticide-
spraying program? Do you have record-
keeping procedures to track all spraying of this
crop? Do you or the state/federal government
regularly test your crops for residue levels?
Harvesting and Handling
Leafy greens must be harvested at optimum
maturity based on buyer specifications. Leaves
of turnips, mustard, kale, and collards should
be harvested when tender by feel and before
they show thick, coarse stems. Cabbage
heads should be harvested when they are
dense and before the leaves show discolora-
tion or begin to open.
Hand-harvest
Hand-harvesting using knives can wound
produce, encouraging contamination from the
soil. Hand-harvesting also may lead to patho-
gen contamination if field workers practice
poor hygiene. Field crews must be trained and
monitored regarding personal hygiene prac-
tices, and portable bathrooms and hand-
washing facilities must be provided at conve-
nient locations in the field.
Knives should be routinely sanitized to keep
disease inoculum from building on their
surfaces and infecting sound cabbage heads
or leafy greens. Workers’ knives should be
collected at the end of a harvest day and
placed in a bucket of sanitizer (use one ounce
of household bleach per gallon of water). For
better protection, place buckets of sanitizing
agents at the ends of selected rows in the
field. This will allow workers to sanitize their
knives at regular intervals and reduce disease
buildup over the course of the production day.
Fresh sanitizer should be introduced through-
out the work day.
When harvesting cabbage or other leafy
greens, field crews should exercise care to
minimize bruise damage and leaf punctures.
Cabbage is sometimes considered a “hard-
ware” item, because it is thrown into bulk
containers in the field or at the packing shed.
Outer leaves break and heads sometimes
burst when subjected to impact damage.
Leaves of leafy greens are crushed if they are
overpacked into field boxes. Improperly used
cutting tools will puncture leaves. Cuts or
breaks in the leaves or heads will cause
excessive wilting and provide avenues for
decay pathogens and human pathogens to
contaminate the product.
Field containers
Containers for harvesting fresh produce
should be constructed of nontoxic materials,
be easy to clean, and be free of extraneous
materials (e.g., nails, wood splinters, etc.) that
can carry over into processing. They must be
approved by the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture (USDA) or the Food and Drug Administra-
tion (FDA) for field use. After detergent
cleaning, field bins, buckets, etc., should be
sanitized by using a very strong sodium
hypochlorite solution dispensed from a high-
pressure sprayer.
Leafy greens should be cleaned in sanitized
water (75 to 100 ppm free chlorine) before
marketing. Bunches of collards and leaves of
mustard, turnips, and kale tied in half dozen
bundles are lain on a flatbed trailer and
hauled from the field station. A straight-line
packing belt conveys bunches beneath spray
washers where sand and dirt are removed and
greens are re-freshened to improve their
appearance. Workers place bundles from the
end of the belt onto racks and into a storage
cooler. Direct field-packing of boxed leaves
also may be done, without washing.
Postharvest Handling
More Cabbage and Leafy Greens
Precooling and storage
Once harvested, leafy greens can lose mois-
ture and crispness quickly if not protected
from the sun. Leafy greens (including cab-
bage) are normally room-cooled since the
season when they are harvested does not
produce hot ambient temperatures. Most
buyers also require icing for loose greens
(kale, collards, mustards, and turnip leaves) to
provide the moisture needed for crispness.
Following the field-boxing of leaves, the
greens may be taken to the shipping location
where a shovel of ice is added to each box.
Washed bundles of greens are removed from
cooling racks and bulk-loaded into trucks by
being lain in rows, with top icing for each row.
Icing is recommended at 2.2 pounds of ice for
every four pounds of greens to maintain a
temperature below 40°F. All leafy greens,
including cabbage, should be cooled to 32°F
with a relative humidity set at 90 to 95 per-
cent.
Icing
Ice used to cool and preserve quality during
transit can be a source of contamination.
Steps should be taken to minimize ice expo-
sure to workers, soil, and airborne dust.
Receiving
Harvest crews should remove as much soil
and mud from the product as possible before
the product leaves the field. An area in the
receiving yard should be set aside so pallets
can be cleaned before they are placed into
bins or sent to cooling.
Water
Water used in cleaning and cooling should be
chlorinated at a concentration of 75 to 100
ppm of free chlorine. Chlorination can be
accomplished using a gas injection system,
adding bleach, or using calcium hypochlorite
tablets. Chlorination levels in the water should
be monitored frequently during operation,
through the use of a chlorine test kit. Water
pH should be maintained between 6.5 and
7.5 to avoid having to use excess chlorine and
in order to maintain recommended free
chlorine levels. Excessive use of chlorine
causes gassing off (which can lead to objec-
tionable chlorine odor, irritation of workers’
skin, corrosion of equipment, and increased
sanitation cost).